Any discussion of prior art throughout the specification should in no way be considered as an admission that such prior art is widely known or forms part of common general knowledge in the field.
An assisted point of sale (POS) terminal is a POS terminal operated by a cashier. Customers present items for purchase and the cashier identifies each item by moving the item across an optical code scanner which reads an optical code in the form of a barcode attached to or printed on the item. The cashier is required to pick up and scan most of the items in the customer's purchase transaction.
Recent statistical data shows that a cashier picks up and scans an average of 550 items per hour and moves each item across a one foot wide optical code scanner. Over a one year period, a cashier will, on average, move a total of 77 tons of merchandise through a total distance of 292 miles. This is one factor that leads to job dissatisfaction and high turnover rates for cashiers. Thus, among its several aspects, the present invention recognizes there is a need to change how items are scanned so that a cashier does not have to pickup and scan most of the items comprising a purchase transaction.